02-13-2023 City Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,February 13,2023 6:00 o'clock p.m. a full presentation that will come in short order that's done by staff. So agreed,I could see where it could come out of order.But also,we're not on timelines that I'm dictating. The government dictates when their legislation happens. I think that is a little bit of a mischaracterization to say it's permanent. Staff actually has a very robust plan to share a full picture on all the options. And,frankly, if that option to go with Long Lake comes out on that timeline,having this in place doesn't hurt them. So I don't think we should jump to the conclusion that it's permanent, or that negotiations are shut down,because these are the things that are coming very shortly.I don't know,Matt, if you want to add on to that, Johnson said he was prepared to make a motion to direct staff to move forward. Johnson moved, Seals seconded,to direct staff to move forward with the special legislation process and appointing Victoria Seals and Matt Johnson to work on the process.VOTE: Ayes 3,Nays 1 (Benson). 20. FIRE DEPARTMENT NEEDS ASSESSMENT Introducing Item 20,Edwards said the City perhaps could have put these two items in the reverse order on the agenda to discuss. The intent here is to get formal direction from the City Council for a fire department's need assessment, again,with the Council action of last fall directing the intent to establish a fire department, and then the hiring of a fire chief to help develop what that future fire department looks like. The next logical step is that we need to complete a needs assessment.And our fire chief has already started working down that path.But prior to expending an inordinate amount of staff time in any direction we wanted to bring this to you. The Council action outlines what the assessment scope work is proposed to be and talks about some other deliverables.And then in particular,paragraph five talks about the timeline in which we would complete the needs assessment. And then we'd come back to touch base with both the negotiating committee and the Council, and eventually a formal presentation at the very end. For those who can't see the Council action,we're proposing a timeline that would end in June, at the June 12 Council meeting with a final report and presentation to the City Council with some intermediate steps, obviously, in between. Seals indicated the timeline calls for a draft report May 22 to City Council, and then another a final report and presentation on June 12. Edwards said the way that we laid out the timeline is we'd have some progress check-ins with the negotiating committee. We would then bring a draft of the of the presentation and the report to the Council in a work session-type environment to get some informal feedback before finalizing the final version for approval or not at the June 12 meeting. Seals stated she appreciates that there are a few check-ins planned in the timeline. There's a lot of notice to have for the Council and the community so they can look forward to what's coming. She said she also appreciates that Edwards has involved other staff like the finance director and fire chief.You guys will have a very robust presentation that compares all the different options on the table.Pulling in Long Lakes' offer,which she said is important to be included, she encouraged the other City Council members who have any questions to send them to the key staff so they can make sure that those are included in the Page 12 of 16